Article Sidebar
Article Details
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the SAMJ is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAMJ does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.
Main Article Content
Systems for scoring severity of illness in intensive care
Abstract
Severity of illness scoring systems are increasingly being used by many intensive care units to predict mortality and to compare results and different therapies. A study was undertaken to evaluate three of these systems - therapeutic intervention scoring system (TISS), acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE 11), and organ failure - in a 2-year prospective analysis in a multidisciplinary intensive care unit. A total of 728 patients with a wide variety of diseases were entered into the study. The relationship between score and mortality in all patients and in specific groups was investigated. The APACHE 11 system is likely to be the most useful in comparing different therapies and intensive care units, while the organ failure system was more accurate in predicting outcome. No system was precise enough in its predictive powers to make decisions to deny or terminate treatment.
